THE SCAD MUSEUM OF ART (SCAD MOA) at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Georgia appointed Andreia Wardlaw director of the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies. The July 10 announcement described Wardlaw as “an experienced leader and community builder who is passionate about education and the arts.” She started in May.
SCAD MOA Chief Curator Daniel S. Palmer said he was “thrilled” to welcome Wardlaw as director of the Evans Center. “The depth of her experience working in various aspects of African American studies and culture will be a tremendous resource to SCAD students and the many visitors who come to see the remarkable exhibitions on view at the museum,” Palmer said in a statement. “Since its founding, the Evans Center has been a beacon that highlights transformative stories of contemporary Black culture, and we look forward to this continuing for years to come.”
From left, Andreia Wardlaw is only the second person to serve as director of the Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies; Exterior of SCAD Museum of Art (circa 2015), which houses the Evans Center. The 1853 brick structure once served as a railway depot and was adapted and reused in 2011, receiving a number of architectural design awards. | Courtesy SCAD MOA (2)
The Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies was established in 2011 by SCAD within the museum, where a permanent gallery space is dedicated to exhibiting works by African American artists. The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art, a gift of more than 60 significant works by artists such as Romare Bearden, Eldzier Cortor, Robert S. Duncanson, Edmonia Lewis, Charles Porter, and Charles White is foundational to the center, which is designed to study and showcase the richness of Black art, culture, and contemporary expression through exhibitions, lectures, and programming.
Walter Evans began collecting African American art in the late 1970s. His first purchase was by Jacob Lawrence and over the decades he amassed more than 500 works and more than 100,000 books and historic materials. A surgeon, Evans spent most of his career working in Detroit, Mich. When he retired in 2001, he and Linda moved to Savannah, the city where he was born and spent his childhood.
“Since its founding, the Evans Center has been a beacon that highlights transformative stories of contemporary Black culture, and we look forward to this continuing for years to come.”
— SCAD MOA Chief Curator Daniel S. Palmer
The Evans Center has presented an array of exhibitions, including notable group shows centered on Lawrence and Frederick Douglass. In 2018, “Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence” celebrated the centennial of Lawrence’s birth and featured many rarely seen paintings by the artist in conversation with a new generation of artists influenced by his work. Exhibitions of Aaron Douglas and Elizabeth Catlett have similarly brought works by the historic artists together with younger artists.
“Frederick Douglass: Embers of Freedom” (2019-20) was an expansive exploration of the life and work of Douglass through an extraordinary collection of archival documents held privately by Evans, including original letters, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and photographs, presented alongside contemporary art works reflecting the political values of the abolitionist and statesman, “Frederick Douglass: Lessons of the Hour,” the video installation by Isaac Julien, among them.
Solo exhibitions of contemporary artists have also been presented at the Evans Center. In recent years, Nina Chanel Abney, Sanford Biggers, Kenturah Davis, M. Florine Démosthène, Chase Hall, Lorraine O’Grady, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Fred Wilson, and others have been the focus of shows.
NEARLY A DECADE AFTER the Evans Center opened, Joël Díaz was appointed the inaugural director in 2020. He was active in the role until 2023. Wardlaw became director in the midst of “Awol Erizku: X,” the artist’s first solo museum exhibition, which is on view through Aug. 5. Summer programming was also getting underway. In June, the center’s Black Culture Rewind film series presented “Malcolm X.” The second installment of the series will feature a screening of “Daughters of the Dust” on July 19.
Wardlaw earned an M.A., in African American studies from Columbia University and received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining the Evans Center, Wardlaw held an adjunct teaching position at the University of South Carolina (2023), her alma mater. In earlier roles, she was a publicity assistant at Penguin Random House, the book publisher; an educator at the Center for Women’s History at the New York Historical Society; and a program assistant at The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, all in New York.
Having arrived at the Evans Center, Wardlaw said the opportunity is an honor. In a statement, she said: “The varied traditions in African American art have long served as a way to illuminate the voices of the community and celebrate Black culture. I’m honored to have the opportunity to elevate the esteemed presence of SCAD MOA’s Evans Center in hopes of building on its legacy of being a preeminent space for engagement with Black art.” CT
FIND MORE about Andreia Wardlaw on Instagram
FIND MORE about the Jacob Lawrence and Frederick Douglass exhibitions at the Evans Center on Culture Type
FIND MORE The Walter Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers was acquired by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University in 2020
FIND MORE Last fall, Walter and Linda Evans donated 30 works by African American artist to the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Ga.
BOOKSHELF
“Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence” was published to accompany the exhibition at SCAD MOA’s Walter and Linda Evans Center for African American Studies. David W. Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom” is based largely on his research of the Walter Evans Collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers. Also consider, “Awol Erizku: Mystic Parallax,” the first major monograph of the artist.
